20 Facts About Geraldine Laybourne

Geraldine Laybourne is an American entrepreneur and former TV executive.

Geraldine Laybourne worked at Nickelodeon from 1980 until 1996, when she became the president of Disney-ABC Cable Networks.

Geraldine Laybourne is the co-founder of Oxygen Media and a tech startup called Katapult.

In 1969, Geraldine Laybourne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Vassar College.

From 1969 to 1970, Geraldine Laybourne worked at Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd, an architecture firm in Philadelphia.

Geraldine Laybourne said she founded the Media Center for Children because she was concerned about the media her children were watching.

In 1980, Geraldine Laybourne was hired as a program manager at Nickelodeon, a year-old network, where she initiated the focus-group approach to programming.

Geraldine Laybourne was one of the first people to focus on television programming for kids.

Geraldine Laybourne spent 15 years at Nickelodeon, taking over the management of the network, and started accepting advertising for the network, in 1984.

Geraldine Laybourne built Nickelodeon into the first global television network to profit from selling advertising targeted towards children.

Geraldine Laybourne led the development of two projects that did not come to fruition: ABC 24 Hour News cable channel and ABZ, an innovative education channel.

Geraldine Laybourne played a role in the creation and management of ABC's Saturday morning children's programming schedule, with the successful launch of One Saturday Morning.

In 1998, Geraldine Laybourne left Disney and partnered with Oprah Winfrey and Carsey-Werner Productions to create Oxygen Media, a cable TV company dedicated to creating television and Internet programming for women.

Geraldine Laybourne purchased three women-oriented online services from her former MTV boss, Robert W Pittman.

LVMH was an early investor, but left in 2001 when Geraldine Laybourne changed strategy from being an Internet company to a television company.

Geraldine Laybourne initially hired 700 people, but scaled down to 250.

Geraldine Laybourne started the mentoring program Global Women's Mentoring Walks, which pairs established and emerging women professionals to engage in mentoring partnerships in communities across the globe.

In 1970, Geraldine Laybourne married Kit Geraldine Laybourne, a television producer, entrepreneur, author, and educator.

Geraldine Laybourne's daughter, Emmy Laybourne, is an author of a series of young adult novels called Monument 14 and is an actress who has appeared in Superstar and other films.

Geraldine Laybourne's son Sam is a former child actor and an Emmy-nominated writer and producer on shows such as Black-ish, Arrested Development, Cougar Town, The Michael J Fox Show and Grandfathered with John Stamos.